pointe shoes – Page 6

About Pointe Shoe Wool…

January 3, 2012 by 4dancers

Today we’re running a post on something I was particularly excited about sharing with the dance community…wool for pointe shoes. When I was researching different topics for possible inclusion this month, I came across Pine Acres Woolstock, which is located in northwestern Wisconsin.

Pine Acres has a small flock of Romney/Rambouillet sheep, and the owner, Teresa Smit, processes some of their wool for use in pointe shoes. I reached out to her to learn more, and she was kind enough to tell us a bit about how wool is processed and prepared for use in pointe shoes…

Can you tell readers a little bit about how you got involved with producing pointe shoe wool?

I am really combining two loves from childhood. I grew up on a farm and am a country girl at heart. During my childhood I enjoyed 11 years of dance, including pointe, and understand the value of wool for padding the toes. Raising a flock of sheep now keeps me happily connected to both worlds.

What is the process like of processing the wool for ballet dancers?

Softness and cleanliness are my two criteria for pointe wool. Softness in wool is determined by the breed of sheep. The Rambouillet breed produces soft, fine wool and is the basis for my pointe wool. The sheep are shorn once a year, usually in April. After shearing, a cover is placed on each sheep which is worn throughout the year. It is replaced with a larger one periodically as the wool grows. These coats protect the wool from the elements of weather and keep the fleeces nice and clean. After shearing, the wool is washed and sent to the woolen mill to be processed.

What are some of the benefits of wool? [Read more…]

January 2012: Pointe Shoes & More

January 1, 2012 by 4dancers

Hello and welcome to 2012!

For this first month of the year 4dancers will be taking a closer look at the pointe shoe and all that surrounds it. Tune in for more about things such as:

The process of raising sheep to provide lambs wool for ballet dancers

A closer look at Freed pointe shoes, including the history, how they are constructed and how to fit them properly

Exercises you can do to improve your arch

And much more!

We’ll also be featuring great content from our columnists, including new contributor, Jan Dunn, who will be talking about dancer wellness. Toss in a teaching tip or two and our new “Dance Blog Spotlight” feature and we’re off and running to meet 2012 with more quality content for readers than ever before!

Happy New Year!

Review: Black Swan

October 28, 2011 by 4dancers

by Catherine L. Tully

Better late than never–right?

It has taken me a long while to get around to doing this review. I was hesitant about watching this movie–not sure if I wanted to see what the depiction was of the ballet world. Somehow I knew it would fall short, and for me it did.

As I had heard, the movie rang true to overarching stereotypes of ballet dancers and what goes on behind the scenes, and I found myself disappointed that it didn’t try a little harder to stretch beyond the typical. After all, not every director is “grabby”, not every retiring ballerina is morose and suicidal, and not every dance mom is overbearing. It would have been nice to depart a bit from these images and strive to create real characters with dimension rather than falling back on old, tired images of these roles. Here, the director played it safe, but, admittedly, it is difficult subject matter to tackle. Still, it would have been nice to have had more range.

The behind-the-scenes look into the ballet world was again somewhat typical, but served as a decent bit of background for those who may not be aware of what goes on in a dance company. Many dancers can relate to things such as the cramped physical therapy office, the nerves as everyone checks the board for their name when ballets are posted and the hush that comes over a room when the director appears.

I loved the scene where you get to see how pointe shoes are “worked” and broken in and the realism of the dancers sitting around in the hallway with their ballet bags. How true, how true. Still, it would have been wonderful to have a little more of that–I think it would have helped explain dancers in a way that would have helped make sense of things better in the movie. After all, there is a lot more to the life of a ballet dancer than people may realize. [Read more…]

Best Ballet Shoes Blog – How I got started

February 21, 2011 by 4dancers

Today we have a guest post from Lara–the editor of the Best Ballet Shoes blog….

My name is Lara and I recently began a website and blog all about the best ballet shoes. Having a low arch and a longer second toe, finding ballet shoes that fit was a bit of a challenge for me. But, it was worth the hunt – a great fitting shoe makes all the difference in your confidence and ultimately, your performance.

It must have been hard for my mother to drive me to ballet classes 4 times a week and buy me new shoes all the time. My mother had always dreamed of being a ballerina, but her immigrant parents didn’t have the money to send her to classes – so the dream continued through me, her first daughter. I felt I owed it to her to indulge in her dream for a while, and then I learned to love it. [Read more…]

About Pointe Shoes

November 8, 2010 by 4dancers

Today I’m dedicating a post to pointe shoes.

Like all the other little girls out there, I couldn’t wait to get into a a pair.

And, as anyone who has had their feet in a pair knows–once you do–it becomes a whole other story…

My feet actually survived pretty well–I have little permanent damage from years of pointe work, unless you count the fact that my second toe used to be slightly longer than my big toe, and now they are the same length. I don’t feel it is particularly noteworthy…especially considering what could have happened to them.

After trying several brands, I wound up in Freed pointe shoes, which had an unusual, almost orange cast to the color of the satin. Very pretty. I can still remember going to buy them with my Mom. The place that sold the shoes was in an old building in downtown Chicago. If memory serves, you had to take a cage-style elevator up to the little store, and it always seemed like there was no one else on the floor when you got out. I remember it as a little spooky; but kind of exciting too.

I have always found it interesting, the different ways that ballet dancers prepare their pointe shoes. I didn’t have much of a special routine to break them in, although I always did wrap my ribbons nicely around the shoes after I took them off.

As for protecting the feet, after a while I didn’t bother with lamb’s wool or toe caps. Once in a while I would wind some paper towel around my toes if they were feeling particularly tender. My feet always felt sore to some degree, but you just learned to live with it, and oddly, it simply became normal to be in pain.

I was just telling this story the other day…after my feet toughened up, I was walking through the house without shoes or socks on and suddenly heard a clicking noise each time I took a step on my left foot. When I looked, a tack was stuck into the bottom. I felt nothing, and when I pulled it out, I didn’t bleed either. Kind of funny…

What about you? Any peculiar stories to share? Any preference in terms of pointe shoes? I’d love to hear from you…

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